


Splinters

by Onceuponymous



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, and The Wanders from WOY, inspired by Nevermore from Teen Titans, some body horror later but I'll warn you at the beginning of the chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 15:46:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11360565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onceuponymous/pseuds/Onceuponymous
Summary: Nico's neglected his dreams for too long.  When Clovis finds him passed out in his cabin, unable to be woken up, he knows it will take help to fix what's been breaking.  When Nico's friends are brought into his mind, will they like what they see?





	Splinters

Clovis always remembered his dreams.

So even as he spread his arms and ran to Morpheus, begging him to stop the attack on New York, that father was wrong to order this, please stop this was wrong and he didn’t want it anymore, Clovis could tell two things. That this was only a recurring nightmare, and that something was wrong with it.

The trees were darker, there weren’t any people around slumping over to possibly never wake up, and Morpheus… Morpheus had paused, and he was turning around. That wasn’t supposed to happen, Morpheus always continued his work impassively, but he was turning around and _looking_ right at Clovis, and—

_SWOOSH_

Black iron protruded from Morpheus’s chest, and the god vanished into golden dust.

“I wish you wouldn’t do that, Nico,” Clovis said, bringing his arms down and coming to a halt.

“You _wanted_ to see the siege again?” Nico stepped into a small patch of sunlight, sword sheathed. He blended into the blurred and shadowy features of Central Park. Despite his waking self’s wardrobe now consisting of orange shirts and cargo shorts from the camp store, the boy standing before Clovis was dressed in his familiar aviator’s jacket and black jeans. He was frowning.

“ _Oneiroi_ , dream spirits, need to be faced. If you defeat my nightmare for me, then my own defenses are weaker when the next one comes.” Clovis couldn’t hold onto the frustration for long, though, and his next words were genial. “Get pulled into the Hypnos cabin while dreamwalking again?”

“It’s my fault this time. I didn’t have a destination in mind when I stepped out, so of course I ended up here,” Nico said. He tapped his fingers against his leg, looking around. “I think I’ll check if Jason’s sleeping, I know some minor gods who want shrines.”

“Wait a minute,” Clovis said. “You went walking without having somewhere to go?”

“I know the dreamscape well enough not to get lost. Don’t worry about it.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about!” Clovis stifled a yawn. This was important, and he had to make Nico take him seriously. “If there isn’t something you had to do, why aren’t you in your own dreams?”

“My dreams aren’t important. Making sure the camps are safe and that the relationships between the gods are stable is important. I can _help_.” That last sentence sounded almost pleading.

Clovis hoped he was glaring rather than just looking half-asleep. “They are important! Even if there wasn’t the possibility of spirit attacks, or prophetic dreams you need to see, sleeping is when the brain organizes itself. We don’t know what dreamwalking does to that process in the long term because it’s usually done only in emergencies.”

“Well if you don’t know, you’re not really in a position to tell me what to do, are you?” Nico snapped. Then he looked horrified, stepped back, and said, “Sorry, I don’t know why I said that. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to—“ Nico shook his head. “Can you point me the way to Jason?”

Clovis knew he should make Nico stay, convince him to go back to his own dreams. Instead, he sighed and gave Nico some directions.

As the demigod walked away, Clovis swore he could see his silhouette flicker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place after the three-days-in-the-infirmary, but before the events of Trials of Apollo (and may contradict some of that series, we'll see)


End file.
